The Thrashers played in their third of four home openers and did a good job taking the Kings crowd out of the game early by drawing three power plays in the first period while holding the home team scoreless. They also outshot LA 12-9, dominating the play at times but also failing to convert on any of the three aforementioned power plays. That would be a sign of things to come.

“What concerns me at times [is that] they ran some cycles against us where they opened up the points and they end up with more shots,” Atlanta coach Craig Ramsay said. “But we’re trying to get our team to understand that they all have to try to score goals, they have to get up ice and play an up-tempo kind of game. We’re going to give up some shots until we really sort it all out, and not look for a perfect play, but run some cycles ourselves against them.”

Defensively, the only breakdown came on the first goal, which was a Ryan Smyth backhand while Zach Bogosian was tied up with Justin Williams. A goaltender interference penalty would not have been out of the question, considering that Williams fell on Mason and impeded his ability to play the puck, but the Thrashers did not get a powerplay or a disallowed goal out of it.

“To be honest, I think they took it to us,” Evander Kane said of the third period. “We came out flat. They played a lot in our zone and that’s what’s going to happen. You are going to get scored on. They definitely played better than us in the third period.”